A Corpus-Based Study of Evaluative Adjectives in Institutional Editorials in British Broadsheet and Tabloid Newspapers

Abstract

Recently, UK newspapers have evolved from mere news sources to tools that educate, update and engage readers by using language that conveys opinions/emotions, constructs newsworthiness and creates rapport. Such interpersonal language has been analysed in terms of evaluation, appraisal and stance. The literature in this field challenges assumptions of objectivity and impartiality in news reporting. However, research on evaluative language in newspaper editorials remains limited. Through a fine-grained framework of evaluation, this study offers new insights into authorial and non-authorial evaluations in British tabloid and broadsheet editorials, their targets of evaluation and their discourse functions. Blending theory and data, the framework builds on models such as appraisal theory (Martin and White 2005) and parameter-based approach to evaluation (Bednarek 2006b) and also draws on corpus analysis. Comprising eight evaluative parameters (e.g. Critical/Affective Assessment, Un/Expectedness and Un/Importance), it unpacks the role of evaluative language in expressing opinions/emotions, establishing writer-reader relations and enhancing news values in newspaper editorials. The corpus comprises 325 institutional editorials stratified by style, title and political orientation. Evaluative adjectives along the different parameters were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The findings reveal that tabloids’ evaluative style is characterised by explicitness, unexpectedness, dramatisation, frequent references to social actors’ emotions and beliefs and exaggeration. Tabloids focus on evaluating human behaviours, characters, values and ethics to enhance sensationalism and personalisation and emotionally engage with both advertisers and readers. Broadsheets, however, adopt a more mitigated, impersonal and implicit evaluative style by prioritising evaluating abstract concepts, states of affairs and propositions to maintain impersonalisation and objectivity. By introducing a new analytical framework linked to news values, this thesis expands our understanding of the semantic and pragmatic functions of evaluation within newspaper discourse. Perspectives on constructing a specialised corpus, recognising both authorial and non-authorial evaluative adjectives and their targets of evaluation are also provided. The findings have pedagogical implications, suggesting the use of newspaper texts in language classrooms, with a focus on evaluative language.